Sauteed beet greens and peas – This recipe is just for the greens, but I like to add extra veggies when I have them and I think the peas would be nice here. Toss them in for the last 15 minutes and simmer until tender.

Looks like meat sauce, doesn’t it? That’s kind of the point. And to be completely clear, this sauce does have ground beef in it – but only a half pound. The sauce gets the rest of its meaty texture from chopped eggplant, which makes a fine complement to the beef.

I adapted this recipe from Mark Bittman’s Cooking Light column, where he modifies popular recipes to use less meat and more veggies. Eggplant is in season right now and I had a ton in my fridge, so when I saw this bolognese recipe that used 1.5 pounds of it, I was in. Traditional bolognese is a very rich sauce made with ground beef, ground pork, spices, and whole milk. This recipe, as you can imagine, is much lighter but still retains a ton of flavor. I used a jar of pasta sauce I had instead of the 28-oz can of whole tomatoes he calls for (I’m not a big fan of the texture of whole canned tomatoes), but either would be fine.

I imagine that crumbled tempeh would make a fine substitute for the beef if you want to make this completely meatless.

This recipe caught my eye for two reasons. First, it doesn’t use many ingredients, and I happened to have all of them on hand. Second, it reportedly comes down to $1.62 per serving, which is pretty darn cheap. Roasting a chicken takes a while, so this is a good fit for a Sunday meal. Then, you can use the leftovers all week, just as you would a rotisserie chicken.

Because this recipe comes from Cooking Light, they instruct you to discard the skin at the end, but feel free to ignore that if you want to munch on its crispy, browned goodness. Also, it’s important to let the chicken stand for 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven, before you cut into it. This lets the juices soak back into the chicken as it cools, leaving you with deliciously moist meat.

Combine 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and sage in a small bowl. Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Starting at neck cavity, loosen skin from breast and drumsticks by inserting fingers, gently pushing between skin and meat. Lift wing tips up and over back; tuck under chicken. Rub garlic mixture under loosened skin. Place chicken, breast side up, on rack of a roasting pan coated with cooking spray. Place rack in roasting pan.

Radish top soup – Someone posted this on our Facebook page this week — looks like a tasty way to use the whole radish. The soup base looks pretty neutral, so you can probably throw in whatever herb you end up with from Pure Luck.

Ratatouille – I’m adding some diced smoked sausage to this to up the protein content and make it a meal. Add it with the garlic and onion in the first step so it has time to brown before you add the rest of the ingredients. Chop up your grape tomatoes here instead of the large/diced ones the recipes calls for.

Creamy mushroom stroganoff is one of my favorite comfort foods. Using just a bit of butter, reduced-fat sour cream, and whole wheat fusilli (corkscrew pasta) makes this one of the healthier versions you’ll find. The fusilli is kind of unusual, but it holds onto the thick sauce really well.

I came across an online version the other day that I wanted to try until I saw that it was missing two ingredients that I consider key to a good stroganoff: dijon mustard and beef broth. I liked, however, the addition of a little white wine, so I incorporated that into my version. I love the rich flavor beef broth gives the stroganoff, but if you’re a vegetarian, vegetable broth would work fine as well.

Melt butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and saute 30 seconds. Add onion and saute another 2 minutes or so, until it starts to soften. Add mushrooms and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat a little and cook about 10-15 minutes, until the broth has reduced quite a bit. Add wine, mustard, and sour cream and stir to combine. Add flour and stir often for another 2-3 minutes, until mixture is thick. Add fusilli and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

You know how some people like to play Christmas music in July? Well, this time of year I like to pretend it’s a lot cooler than it is and whip up something wintry. I hear all my friends up north discussing how they’re wearing coats already and I get kind of jealous. Anyway, the vanilla cinnamon syrup is divine, and you’ll have enough left over to use in banana smoothies (like I did today), or as pancake/waffle syrup. If you don’t want to mess with vanilla beans, I’m sure a teaspoon or two of vanilla extract would work fine.

Serve these little guys after dinner with a nice cup of coffee and pretend it’ll be out of the 80s before November. You just might fool yourself.

6-8 small tart apples, like Galas, peeled with the stem on*
3 cups sugar
2 vanilla beans, split and scraped (you’re just using the pods here)
4 cinnamon sticks
2 quarts of water
Juice of one lemon (a couple of tablespoons)

Place peeled apples, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, and lemon juice in a large pot. Cover with water then bring to a simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes (longer for bigger apples, about 20 minutes) until you can easily pierce with a fork. Remove the apples with a slotted spoon to a holding plate. Bring poaching liquid to a full boil and cook about 25 minutes to make a light syrup. This won’t be really thick like maple syrup, but it’ll be really nice and sweet.

Place one or two apples in a bowl for each serving. Pour warm syrup over apples and then garnish with cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans.

*You can really use as many or as few apples as you have here. There’s a ton of syrup, so feel free to fill up the pot.